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The post-mortem is in on the 2008 Presidential election, and the news isn’t good. We lost. Not only “we” as conservatives, but also all those Americans who are literally giddy with joy over the election results. They just don’t know it yet. The change they are all waiting for may not be what they expect.
We now have a President and Congress who are ready to spend money as if there is no tomorrow. They are prepared to squander billions on alternative energy (doubling expensive wind and solar from 3% to 6% of our total resource in the next three years), and billions more on expansive federal works projects ala FDR (upgrading federal buildings and construction that will take years to get rolling). The problem is, FDR’s programs didn’t help unemployment figures of the early 30’s. In fact, 7% to 9% unemployment went double digit under FDR’s administration and remained above14% until after the beginning of World War II. As for energy, it seems counter-intuitive to chase high-priced sources when a large percentage of the American pubic is experiencing financial hard times. Perhaps a Government energy subsidy is in order, you know, something in addition to the stimulus (welfare) checks the new President is intent on giving to all our citizens. You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to wonder where all the money is going to come from, or how bankrupting this Country will turn our economy around. It’s a colossal gamble that is moving forward with very little chance of being stopped. The worst part is that it will all happen because of what Conservatives did not do in November. The number of Republican voters who participated in the 2008 Presidential election dropped 1.3 percent from 2004. Democrats on the other hand, through grass roots mobilization, registration and guerrilla campaigning managed to increase their totals by 2.6 percent. Understandably a case could be made that the 2008 Republican Presidential ticket was not strong, but within the context of this alternative, it would have been a far better choice. So we move into an uncertain future with an untried President, an unbridled Congress and unprecedented debt. Even the supporters of this financial plan don’t have a clue how it will turn out. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that we find ourselves in this position because when it was really important, too many of us didn’t vote.
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